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Sep 3, 2018

Despite the 8-2 scoreline, the performance of FC Barcelona against Huesca raises more questions than answers.

There could be a feeling of disbelief for those who have joined only in second half to watch last night's demolition of Huesca or those who have only seen the highlights of the match about the headline. We Barca fans are known universally for our ability to press the Panic button at the slightest hint of trouble. But even by that standard, Barca fans should have up in arms with the way we were performing in the first half last night. The second half performance may have done good to paper over the cracks that was so prnounce to escape notice in the first half.

Barcelona will not Escape Unhurt with this kind of Defending!

As per the ratings given by whoscored.com, Barca defenders were rated the lowest in comparison to their colleagues. It ain't surprising that in such a demolition, normally the defenders have nothing much to do. But last night that was not the case. Anyone who have watched the first half, would disagree with the ratings given to our defenders. They are too high to start with and none of them deserve anything higher than 5. That was how bad they were in the first half!

The comical way Umtiti defended in the second goal of Huesca; one starts to wonder whether we need to rest him following a gruesome World Cup campaign. Pique who is supposed to the leader of the backline, wasn't faring any better either. The full backs Roberto and Alba looked a liability every time Huesca made a move forward. Another worry was the amount of crosses which was getting our defense worried. Huesca was not able to make anything much ouit of those in the end; but you cannot expect that kind of results against bigger teams.

Barca needs to thanks Huesca for the Comfortable Victory in the end

In the end Huesca was undone by their philosophy of "Live by the Sword, die by the Sword". They were pretty ambitious against Barca at the Camp Nou, and it felt like they decided to give it a go even if the result could be catastrophic. Indeed the result was a calamity! The players and fans could take heart from the kind of counter attack they were unleashing in first half. In the end they took it a bit further than actually needed.

Had they remained compact after the half time rather than chasing like headless chicken, they could have created more trouble for Barca. For Barca it was just a matter of time to find those through balls into acres of space left open by the defense. And they did that in the second half. It's quite a surprise that we only scored five in the second half!

Lionel Messi Inspired Barca to a solid Second Half performance

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. John C. Maxwell

The difference last night was once again Lionel Messi. Forget the goals and assist, he was sensational with his build up play in the midfield. Last night he was playing the striker and midfielder role to perfection. At times it felt that we had both Xavi and Iniesta playing in the midfield; and our star player was playing those roles into perfection. In the second half he read the game well and started to organise attack more from midfield, which meant we remained compact in midfield and Huesca never had any serious chance.

His midfield role was sensational and that opened tons of space in both wings with majority of defenders focused on him. And he like only he can kept finding those players in those spaces. There still was those magical moments and plenty of them, one of them gave us the equaliser. With a turn of shoulder, he was away from the attacker and the next thing you know was the ball in the back of net. Obviously his leadership ability won't be judged against Huesca but still was a delight to watch.